My Attack at city hall
In a city that won't denounce political violence.
Brief summary of what I’ve done In the past few weeks
So you have a slim idea of where I get the audacity
I attended a counterprotest in Boston, where Boston Police with pepper spray and wooden batons created a perimeter for white supremacists who were protesting abortion as part of the "Mens march". My friend and I were threatened with arrest for disturbing the police if we "touched the railings" I started a chant of "who do you serve, who do you protect"
I followed a few officers looking for a guy, and yelled to him about his right to remain silent, then talked with a cop about the importance of the 5th amendment. They did not end up arresting someone they had been looking for. This man may have been arrested if I wasn't there, despite the lack of evidence. A short of the video now has eight thousand views. You can watch the full video here.
Recorded VICE getting a gun behind city hall CI tipped them off to someone selling weed, they found a ghost gun too, in a potentially unlawful search. They got upset about me watching when I said “that doesn’t look like a 22” remarking that it wasn’t the same gun as the shooting they recovered casings from the day before. You can watch the video of vice and CSI here Turns out they were recovering a Polymer80 “ghost gun”
During city council, I exploited a loophole, identifying it as such, after threatening to sue the city asking for a review process to be implemented for the city law department, and ensuring everyone there is familiar with constitutional law. The Mayor voted to make it go away, and the majority of councilors voted against that, and then voted to pass it.
Got Bergman to interrupt himself to call me rude, by snort-laughing at him when he brought up the silly red herring about what he’d found googling as an argument against seeking more information
I recorded them arresting someone and searching two vehicles after report of a gun - none recovered
Unrelated to me but same timing, it came out that 27 Worcester Cops Skipped training.
I’ve been calling myself an instigative journalist, but it’s been heavier on the instigation than the journalism.
I’m there every meeting, but I was at this particular city council meeting to speak on a few agenda items
Getting criteria for speed humps
Supporting Evan Corrigan’s petitions to change some unusable plots to conservation land
The city financial problem of Polar Park
Upgrading from Punch Cards for librarians (Our library is one of our best assets, why are we making people working there deal with punch cards?!?)
Increasing services for the unhoused community
Mass Live quoted me saying “The chamber of commerce and city administration told us again and again that Polar Park would pay for itself. It looks like that’s an outright lie”.
The shelter at Queen Street was deep cleaned two days later, on the rainiest day of the month.
This Afternoon, the city announced a resource center with bathrooms and outlets like I asked for. (Note: Councillor Haxhiaj and Dr. Castiel have advocated for a Day Resource Center for many years previously)
The “ City Council Incident” As Batista described it
I remember the attack in flashes.
It was weird, and eerily quiet - A few of the councilors weren't there yet.
Petty rushed in, sat down and gaveled - I think it was 6:34, not sure if I looked at my watch or something else, maybe I’m wrong. I hit record on my gopro and rushed downstairs to get in line for public comment.
I was coming down the stairs from the fourth floor of city hall to the third, and a guy in a hoodie I’d noticed standing there earlier was still there.
He turned, looked at me - looked at me again harder, which for a while I thought was making sure it was me, I’m now realizing he was seeing if I had a body camera on.
He lifted an aerosol can, I thought it was pepper spray at first, and snapped my mouth and eyes shut.
I realized that noone else would know what was going on and help me, because of the anthem going on in the background, and began screaming. Apparently “No, fuck you, were the first words out of my mouth.
I swung my hands down, grabbing at where he would have been if he was still where he was when he had sprayed me, and grabbed air - I felt the edges of clothes on the back of my hand.
I opened my eyes, and I saw about seven people around me - my assailant walking backwards away from council chambers. I yelled “Stop that man” and then looked for my glasses, couldn’t find them
I asked where the fuck are the police
I looked back up, and saw a pile of two or three people further down the city hallway.
I saw a small man in a hoodie standing alone in the elevator as the doors closed
One person handed me my phone, another handed me my glasses.
I shout again, asking why this is the first meeting there are no police
From hearing about the events afterwards,
Charles Luster said I was on the floor in the fetal position, and I don’t remember that or having to stand up, so maybe my head was hit at some point too.
This entire series of events took place during the national anthem. A minute and a half, maybe less.
I’m very much looking forward to getting that footage from public records, but expect them to try and withhold it.
Charles was right there, he could have pulled him off of me. He said someone else was hurt, and I thought at first it was someone with his organization, but I now realize he was talking about Wahya. He didn’t post enough details to report, but encourages people to call him for the TRUTH because “he doesn’t do that horse and pony show.”
I didn’t describe him to the police because I knew that anything I thought I actually remembered would be used to exonerate him later and my brain was fuzzy, but also, I just remember a gaunt face in a hoodie.
Thankfully a witness identified him to me, and the police recognized him from city hall security footage.
“Why is this the one time there aren't police here”
There was ZERO police presence at this time.
I have attended almost every single Worcester city council meeting of the past year, and this was the first time there weren't cops five feet from where I was attacked at this time and place.
There’s usually an officer on the bench, another standing at the doorway to the chamber poised to stop people from speaking for more than two minutes if ordered to by the chair (Mayor Petty)
There have always been two officers at the beginning of meetings - more recently four or five. I counted eleven the night of the peaceful protest.
That night included the unprecedented physical moving of someone at the stand by Captain Early - the officer who delivered my LTC revocation letter. She who was there to speak on an item on the agenda, my petition to review the city’s attorney’s competency, but the chair wouldn’t allow it.
I’ve seen them change shifts during late meetings. I’ve said goodbye to an officer at most of the past dozen meetings after packing up my camera. They’re a fixture of the city council and everyone other than the city manager is saying so.
Unfortunately, my attack is going to be used to justify increased security measures, rather than highlighting that this city can’t maintain the bare minimum safety it should.
My Public Comment
I realized that as shaken up as I was, this was an important moment and that I needed to show I wasn’t being silenced, so I went up there and thank fucking gods I had written my statement ahead of time
You can read it HERE or watch it below
I just read it outloud, exhausted and drained and unable to really focus on anything but just read my words and then sat down.
It turns out the people in line behind me were the awesome Umass students who had filed the petition in the first place. The person before me is Wahya the incredible person who stopped my assailant.
Eric batista, our city manager set to receive a new ridiculous contract published a response that was more of a response to my Facebook post than about the crime itself.
‘You’ll have to deal with the legal fees, but political violence is ok so long as it’s not in city hall. Again’
Not exactly, you can read it here.
He insists that it’s “not a practice of the municipality” to have cops at meetings, and mislabels the situation as a fight rather than admitting it was an attack.
Kinda feels like it is in fact this second one here.
I feel like this responds more to my Facebook post about lack of police than he did to the act of white supremacy fifty feet from where he was sitting. I felt outright gaslit about the lack of police presence. It is indeed a practice to have officers there and then, regardless of how they’ve been assigned or requested.
Also, quick quest: If there were police at the front and back, did they say hi to him as he walked out the door? Did this guy just drive his car out the parking garage after?
The response I personally got from Batista is exactly representative of how nothing gets done in our city.
It’s written like a PR release (understandable, I guess emails with me should be treated as public record) and starts with asking me to accept his sincere apologies but did not actually include anything further that was apologetic, it certainly did not include a apology or the word sorry. Instead, it justified the police absence, absolved people under him of responsibility, and promoted changes he’s making.
Amongst the legalese and built-in cognitive dissonance, he ties the situation up with a little bow, no longer to be Worcester’s problem.
This was my response to him:
Dear Manager Batista,
I acknowledge your request for me to accept your sincerest apologies, but I do not see one in that email. To the contrary, it feels dismissive to call the attack an “event I endured”.
Respectfully, if it was a priority for your administration, and a responsibility of the municipality, then why was it not upheld or enforced by either? As you may be aware, I have been documenting the Worcester police Department for the past few months, and prior to that have reviewed many public records of body worn footage.
It is extremely exceptional for them to not have BWCs. To clarify some details, as you stated in your public remarks on the matter, It’s not that “No body worn camera footage was retrieved” it’s that none was collected, in potential violation of Worcester Police Procedure 403, which I have attached for your records. This situation did not require additional Emergency Management, additional police resources, or anything from The Department of Public Facilities.
The presence of two uniformed officers, as there has been at every single city council meeting I have attended previously this year, would likely have been sufficient, since it happened right where they usually sit/stand outside the chamber. It’s also, of course, notable that my assailant has donated to multiple members of city council.
I recognize you may be attempting to maintain relationships, but must remind you of the importance of condemning political violence. This was a crime driven by hate. I labeled a fundraiser at Mr. Piccolo's restaurant as a “racist convention”, and the next week he attacks me 50 feet from people he’s donated to. This was an act of fascism. And if you make excuses for the police department, and fail to even call it an attack, you are telling racists they can do this again, worse. It will happen - and that blood will be on your hands.
Please be on the right side of history, but more importantly, act in the best interest of Worcester
Sidenote, I guess I got the answer to my question from last week (Yes)
Councilors Haxhiaj and Nguyen have addressed the political violence and lack of other response, as have a few community leaders, but the Mayor, and five other councillors my assailant has voted for have remained silent.
Imagine how they'd be handling it if I had attacked someone.
Also, if they didn’t expect there to already be cops there, then why did most of the council do absolutely nothing? I understand they hate me, but aren’t they even slightly concerned when they hear someone screaming?
Oppression
This was an act of cowardice. This was someone trying to play dirty because they don’t like how much I’m getting done by playing fairly. It was also an act of oppression, an attempt to silence free speech, not just mine but of others like mine.
I think it must have been a demonstration of power, showing me that I could be attacked anywhere, even city hall. To discourage activists, and make an example of me.
But this isn't personal - it's political.
He’s angry, and wants to hurt me because I hurt his power.
It could be financial, but I don't think he took enough of a hit - if anything, it'll probably generate lots of support for his business - that's how those circles operate, they help each other to stay in power so that they're in a position to help each other stay in power.
I didn’t know this at the time, but apparently he’s a regular donor to half the council, and the registered meeting location for many of them.
But this wasn’t just an act of violence. It was Police Sanctioned violence.
I hadn't realized how much of of a comfort those three red lights indicating a boydcamera was on had come to be.
The moment I truly felt fear for my life was when I saw the brackets where body cameras were supposed to be on the responding officers. That was when I actually started to panic.
I know what these brackets look like, because I had seen them last week being passed out and put on by Boston Police while they defending anti-abortion protestors.
I asked them why this wasn't being recorded - they didn’t answer me.
They asked for more details on the “Racism convention” post and I said that it was a Biancheria event, they didn’t even write that down. Their notepad had maybe five lines on it, and that includes my date of birth and address
One who walked up wasn't recording, I asked him why he wasn't, he said he just got here. Him and the flourish others he was with went back down the stairs they’d just come up.
The responding officers asked me if I wanted an ambulance, and I know how bad it looks in a report to decline medical attention, and even though my eyes felt fine I sure as fuck didn’t feel ok.
It was upsetting to get on the gurney, knowing CSI was about to show up. I wanted few things more than to sit cross legged with a Gopro and capture the entire crime scene process.
As I was getting in the ambulance, I saw two of the officers who had been there for the gun thing behind city hall pull up, and laugh realizing I was the victim. Not a good sign when CSI already is against you.
When the EMTs parked at Umass, I half expected to be brought out into an alley with eight cops waiting to beat me up.
I wasn’t sure until my partner got to the ER that I was actually safe.
I was medically cleared that evening, none got in my head or mouth. No signs of concussion.
To my knowledge, he still hasn’t been arrested - a summons is sent and he has court in January.
I got confirmation of that this afternoon from the City Manager’s office
I’ve known I was the canary in the coal mine for a while now. I realized that when there was post-election police sanctioned violence against activists, I would be the first in Worcester to find out. I just didn’t expect it to be so soon. I didn’t expect it to be at city hall.
This is a hate crime, objectively, not just because I'm publicly queer but because it was designed to intimidate me.
And because I was on my way to speak at public comment, this apparently falls into the narrow window of violating MRCA, the massachusetts civil rights act and is a full blown civil rights violation
But I'm scared, and I hate to admit that, but that's the point.
My Pathologically Demand Avoidant brain (PDA) responds to threats the same way it responds to mockery - if you're trying to hurt my feelings, if you're trying to make me scared, it won't. It doesn't let you. I say "they're just trying to scare me" in the same way my brain says “They’re just trying to hurt your feelings” and I’m not as scared.
Unfortunately, this event is having the intended physiological effects, the anxiety and concern for my own safety, the heightened awareness and exhaustion from being concerned so much of the day.
People let this control them because they’re quiet. I can’t be quiet. I am scared, understandably so. But this is validating of the work I’m doing, and free speech MUST continue.
Part of what I’m struggling here, is that I’m accepting that this feeling - this dread, anxiety and concern, the ongoing awareness that I could be killed at any time and the police won’t do anything about it because they don’t just not care, they wanted this violence, is new to me, but is the everyday existence of trans and BIPOC people in America.
The way I feel now? That a white supremacist could attack me and the police would do nothing - that's the way many people feel, all the time.
So, I’m trying to honor myself, while being cognizant that I am certainly not the only one impacted by this - this establishes a new precedent for violence against activists in this city.
Because this is so much bigger than me.
Local author and community leader Jennifer Gaskin wrote it well.
Last night, something unthinkable happened at the Worcester City Council meeting. During the pledge of allegiance, David Webb, a well-known community activist, was sprayed in the face with spray paint in a deliberate and violent attack. This act was not just inhumane; it was meant to intimidate, silence, and send a chilling message to anyone standing on the side of humanity.
The conditions under which this happened raise deeply troubling questions. Unlike previous meetings, there were no police present as a standard precaution. When officers finally arrived, they lacked body cameras—standard equipment designed to ensure transparency and accountability. To make matters worse, the assailant was allowed to leave the city building without consequence.
This starkly contrasts with the reaction to a peaceful protest just weeks ago. Then, Black and brown community members were labeled as a threat merely for gathering, singing, and standing in defiance. Councilors decried their presence as violent and dangerous, necessitating police escorts. Yet, when a direct and violent act like last night’s occurs, there’s no outcry, no immediate response, and no sense of urgency to ensure safety.
This is the reality we are willing to accept in Worcester? A reality where violence against those advocating for justice and humanity is brushed aside, but the peaceful presence of Black and brown voices is treated as a threat? Where police presence is weaponized against marginalized communities while being conspicuously absent when actual violence erupts?
David Webb’s attack was more than an isolated incident; it was a symptom of a broader issue. It is part of the escalating rhetoric and dog whistles that encourage these actions. For weeks, we’ve been sounding the alarm about the implications of unchecked hate and intolerance. Councilor King petitioned for increased protections, only to be dismissed as overreacting. Last night’s attack underscores the validity of his concerns and the urgent need for action.
The question now is: will Worcester remain silent in the face of such brazen violence, or will we finally confront these issues head-on? This is not about politics; this is about humanity.
To those in power: your inaction emboldens violence. Your silence is complicity. This city cannot claim to stand for diversity, equity, and inclusion while enabling an environment where advocates for justice are met with physical harm.
We must demand answers and accountability. Why were there no police escorts last night? Why was the response delayed and inadequate? Why was the assailant allowed to leave without consequence?
But most importantly, we must demand change. This cannot be the norm. The violent attack on a member of our community is a reminder that words have consequences, and rhetoric, no matter how veiled, can incite harm.
Let this be the moment when Worcester takes a stand. Let this be the moment when we say unequivocally that violence, intimidation, and hate have no place here. Anything less is unacceptable.
The time to speak out and take action is now. Let’s not wait until tragedy forces our hand.
This isn't just a political crime
This is objectively a civil rights violation, under not just federal laws, but the Massachusetts Civil Rights Act
In the place of our politics, during the national anthem.
And our city administration is silent about it.
Me being annoying, and disrupting the status quo bothers people enough to justify violence, and people relate to that - so people are talking now, about where their threshold on how much free speech makes it ok to commit violence.
And it is scary where Worcester stands on this.
The city manager says not to do it in his house, but isn't punishing the person who just did it, or condemning political violence itself, and practically declaring open game on progressive activists in Worcester.
“violence and aggressive behavior of any kind toward any person inside City Hall and other public facilities is unacceptable.”
Translation ‘if it’s outside city hall, fair game guys, racists keep doing your thing’ - E batista
Ok so let’s be real for a moment - yeah I totally antagonized this.
I’m obnoxious and I upset the people in power and I called a political fundraiser (at what turned out to be their primary meetup spot) a racist convention. I should be - and am- glad it’s not worse. But of course I don't fucking deserve it. Of course this shouldn't have happened. Of course violence isn’t actually ok.
But it makes perfect sense. Noone is surprised. If anything, they’re surprised it didn’t happen sooner.
The reason people are more empowered now is because of the election, and it’s more important than ever that we maintain our own communities, and continue staying more active than ever in local politics. Hold your elected officials accountable.
Denounce violence even if they won’t.
Thursday, while my paint covered face was at the top of the front page of the Telegram, I realized that the city still hadn’t arrested him. I went to the courthouse. Restraining order is only for people you’ve been in a relationship with or lived with, so court clerk gave me the paperwork to file a harassment prevention order
My harassment prevention order was denied, because there was only one instance of violence. If I’d told the judge we met off Grindr, I would have gotten it, but that law isn’t really made to protect victims of violent crimes.
I’ve increased security at my house. I already have a pretty robust camera system that has been well documented by my driveway making it to MTV's ridiculousness, and that time I caught a Space X launch over a burning building, but more recently the time I had a Nightclub in my basement but have added a few for redundancy.
I haven't been walking places as much, or anywhere at night. The owner of my old business is on alert. I’m organizing groups of people to join me for public meetings.
Had a therapy consult yesterday morning. I could see a person through them for half an hour every two weeks or be referred out. I opted for the latter. Confirmed PTSD symptoms which I guess I sorta knew but hearing it from her was validating.
My eyes are still sore but it doesn't seem like anything got in them, more fatigued.
This is prominent at the holocaust memorial in Boston, but you’ve probably heard/seen it elsewhere.
First They Came – by Pastor Martin Niemöller
First they came for the Communists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Communist
Then they came for the Socialists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Socialist
Then they came for the trade unionists
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a trade unionist
Then they came for the Jews
And I did not speak out
Because I was not a Jew
Then they came for me
And there was no one left
To speak out for me
It didn’t start with me. It started with them rounding up and arresting the unhoused community. It started with them pricing single parents out of homes. It started with them redlining years ago, and upholding it now.
It starts with apathy for human life, and choosing aesthetic over morality.
I don’t care how pretty of a city we are while we are immoral and disorganized.
I am ashamed of Worcester right now.
We need to stand against political violence, something apparently beneath our city administration.
PS. Thanks to Councillors King and Ojeda for giving a shit
Councillor Pacillo I saw you run and hide behind Russell while I was being attacked
That’s some devoted loyalty to the flag you’ve got there Mister Bergman